“Better me” month: July 2021 review
July has been a ‘better me” month of my life.
I joined a 30-day self-care challenge for the first time and it has been impactful.
In this monthly review, I’ll share how a self-care challenge created a better me in just one month.
And of course, it comes with the usual monthly reflection, so you can have a peek at what’s going on behind the blog. I’ve been blogging for 11 months now. Yay.
Full disclosure though, when I say “better me”, I’m talking about small success by having daily quick wins. I didn’t overhaul my life in 30 days.
The 30-day self-care challenge did establish a great foundation towards a healthier lifestyle.
How did July become a “better me” month?
I’ve confessed in this post that I wasn’t good at self-care. Read that post if you want 24 Ideas for Self-Care to claim your power back.
In November last year, I started to track my sleeping time because I wanted to stop the bad habit of sleeping at 3 am (then waking up at 6:30 a.m).
After weeks and weeks of tracking my sleep time, I finally did it in June. I can’t even remember now the last time I slept at 3am. I shared a photo of my sleep tracker in a bullet journal here.
Then in July, I joined a 30-day self-care challenge hosted by a good friend Ness. She runs a Facebook group that helps Filipino women to cultivate self-love.
I joined because I was ready to take on another self-care habit anyway. And it has been an amazing experience.
In the beginning, I felt unsure because it was one self-care a day to do and I’m not used to doing new things every day.
But because some of the tasks are already part of my routine, I joined anyway. I did all the tasks even if I had to alter (as permitted) some of the self-care tasks.
The 30-day challenge made me a “better me” because I gained these three important takeaways.
- Self-care practice maintains perspective and encourages positivity
- Practising self-care improves relationships
- Self-care improves personal productivity.
Self-care helped me maintain perspective and encouraged positivity
The 30-day self-care challenge helped me to reflect more and understand myself as an individual. I was able to identify my triggers and put things into perspective. It helped me reinforce the habit of looking for something good in any situation.
I was able to rearrange my priorities. This is so important because It made me understand where stress is justified and where I should be more relaxed.
Practicing self-care improved my relationships
Practising self-care improved relationships with myself, with my work and just the way I deal with my everyday agenda.
By investing time on myself, even if it was as little as 15 minutes had a positive effect. It enabled me to refresh and therefore put me in a good place where I was able to engage with my husband and kids more intentionally.
Last month, I was less rushed when I had to hang out with them at bedtime. I had time to sit with them at dinner time. I even had time to do more with the kids and spend more focused time with my husband.
It has been an amazing month.
Self-care helped me improve personal productivity
While self-care is sometimes seen as indulgent, it often has a much broader impact that goes beyond being well as a person.
Practising self-care made me more focused, more emotionally stable and I felt more positive in my relationships.
No more feeling guilty that I was working too much nor doing less a lot.
I have applied this principle: I work when I work and I relax when it’s time to relax. However, the relaxation part is something I want to work on more because doing nothing is always a challenge for me. So, I may need to be more creative about this.
JUNE 2021 Reflection
Gratitude
My gratitude list in July was long but the top 3 were: 1. winning an amazon course (worth $200), 2. my comment was featured in one of the blogs of Lyrical Host and 3. my family and everything about them.
I discovered Kimi Kinsey just a couple of months ago and I’ve learned so much from her. So imagine how delighted I was when I won her Amazon Course. That made my first week of July.
Then in the second week, my comment in one of the Lyrical Host FB threads was included in the blog post: We Asked Bloggers, “How Do You Deal With Burnout?” and it gave me extra confidence that my message matters. I love Lyrical Host. It’s the best hosting company I’ve ever known and I will be forever grateful to them.
I’m grateful for having a wonderful family and everything that comes with them. All these goals and work and intentions are all meaningful and serve a purpose because of them.
Highlights
I’ve slept a lot in July. I usually put M to bed at 8:00 pm and when she’s asleep I have at least 15 minutes of chat time with Kuya who is growing so fast. Our chats at bedtime are at a deeper level now. We talk about life, dreams and sometimes he gets so “nerdy” in a cute way.
I usually get up and work. Last month, I did something different. I did my evening self-care routine at 7:30 and slept through most nights. The only downside is, my progress with product creation was so slow. And that’s ok.
R is home a lot more now and I’m loving it. I get so much done during the day and as always he picks up the slack for me.
We also did a lot of cleaning. I paused blogging for 3 days to pay attention with cleaning all the rooms except the kitchen. I’m planning a big project in the kitchen but I just can’t find the time yet.
Goals in Progress 2021
My focus areas are: well being, family and home and the blog.
I’ve focused on these three areas from the first day of this blog and since then, I’ve learned something important.
After almost a year of blogging, I realised that I can never achieve a perfect balance. And I’m ok with that.
Last month, I did a lot for the blog and less for the family and home. And I was ok with it.
My general guide in terms of balance is: as long as I’m not spending too much time on just one area for too long I’m ok. So if last month, I was ultra focused in self-care then next month, I will focus more on the blog.
Well-Being (Self-care)
I’m so proud of myself for completing the 30-day self-care challenge. I had to be creative and altered some of the tasks but that was where the fun came from.
Family and Home
I’m putting the Kon-Mari project on hold for now because creating digital products and setting up a shop is a much more massive job than I initially thought.
So, with family and home, my plan is to take things month by month for now. Spending quality time with my family will always be on top of my priorities which means that anything to do with the home will just be back to basics.
No crazy home projects for now. We’ve already done quarterly deep cleaning in July and I’m so proud and grateful that every one helped. Yes, even our 5 years old M contributed with the cleaning.
Passion (Blog)
July has been so good to me. My goals are becoming clearer for the blog and shop and I’m hoping that the shop will be live before 1 September 2021, which will mark my first year of blogging. So, keep an eye out for that.
I’ve been plugging away in the background and once I figured out all the things technical about it, the shop is good to go.
My plan is to create at least 10 products and then it will be live. I can’t wait to share what I created with you.
Afterthoughts,
I hope that the 3 takeaways from a 30-day self-care challenge inspired you to do more self-care too.
If you like this post, please share your thoughts in the comment section below and tell me what amazing practices/routines you do for yourself.
Also…
Every month I publish my Monthly Review, with featured tip/s aiming to inspire you even just a little bit.
Check out the Related Monthly Review Posts below.
January 2021 Top 3 Ideas for a Monthly Review to stay focused
February 2021 An Effective Checklist for your Monthly Review
March 2021 How to use a checklist for a Monthly Review
April 2021 Powerful Affirmations : April 2021 Monthly Review
May 2021 Cultivate a Healthy Mindset (May 2021 Monthly Review)
June 2021 5 Tips to stay on track with your Goals: June 2021 review
